Your Noon Briefing: New look for allmediascotland, sales in Scotland of national newspapers, etc

A NEW look for allmediascotland.com is launched today, meaning the site now can be viewed beautifully on all types of screens – ie it is ‘responsive for the likes of your mobile phone or iPad.

Plus, it has been designed to provide readers immediate access to a huge archive of content.

We hope you like.

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THE Times newspaper has again seen its average sales in Scotland increase, year-on-year – this time rising from an average 19,018 during September last year to an average 19,736 last month.

Figures released on Friday by the newspapers circulation body, ABC, follow those of a month before (and noted here on allmediascotland) that found the paper’s sales in Scotland had risen from an average 19,567 during August last year to an average 20,420 two months ago.

And it wasn’t the only national newspaper title to enjoy a hike in average year-on-year sales in successive months, the Independent on Sunday doing similar.

BEGINS Mark Williamson, in The Herald, today: “A marketing and design agency has grown staff numbers by 40 per cent in the past year in response to growing interest in digital media among corporations and public sector bodies.

“The headcount at Edinburgh-based Whitespace has increased to 70, from 50 in September last year, following a big increase in demand for the company’s services.”

AN account executive is being sought by Edinburgh-based Pagoda PR, which is also looking to fill a similar position on an interim basis.

The vacancy is advertised here on the allmediascotland.com media jobs board and repeated on the dedicated twitter feed, allmediajobs.

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TWO Scottish book publishers – one set up by three Scots sports journalists four years ago – are set to release a book which takes readers behind the scenes at Bayern Munich football club, under its head coach, Pep Guardiola.

Pep Confidential – out on Thursday – details the year a Spanish journalist, Marti Perarnau, spent shadowing Guardiola in his first season (2013-14) with the German champions.

It is believed that Perarnau’s level of access to a world-class football club is unprecedented in the modern era.

The book is being co-published by BackPage Press and Arena Sport – an imprint of Edinburgh-based publishers, Birlinn.

BackPage Press was founded four years agi by three sports journalists – Martin Greig (ex-Herald senior sportswriter), Neil White (ex-Sunday Times sportswriter) and James Porteous (ex-Herald deputy sports editor) – with the ambition of publishing world-class sports books.

Greig told allmediascotland: “We were alerted to the book earlier this year through a journalist friend of ours, Lee Roden, who noticed that the Spanish publisher had just sold the German rights to the title.

“We immediately enquired about the English language rights. After initial reads, it became clear that this was a book which would be of huge interest to an English audience.

“A lot of books claim to be an ‘insider account’ but Perarnau’s relationship with Guardiola – and the level of trust between them – has allowed him to write about everything from teamtalks, to tactics. It is the look behind the scenes that every fan craves.

“At the time, we had our hands full promoting our Andrea Pirlo book and felt that a co-publication would allow us to truly do the book justice. We contacted Pete Burns, who runs Arena Sport, and he was as enthused about the book as we were. We’re all just really excited to get the book out and see the reaction.”

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BEGINS The Scotsman’s Stuart MacDonald: “BBC Scotland’s flagship headquarters has been slammed by food hygiene inspectors over the state of its kitchens.

“A series of food safety breaches were discovered at the catering facilities at the £188 million Pacific Quay building in Glasgow.”

BEGINS Simon Bain, in Saturday’s edition of The Herald: “Skyscanner has been hailed by its early backer Scottish Equity Partners as Scotland’s first $1 billion web company, and by its new US investor Sequoia as ‘one of the best technology companies ever to come out of Europe’.”

‘SOME of the best writers… around’ are being promised as part of a new look to one of Scotland’s best-known websites, Bella Caledonia.

Says the website, here: “Bella is changing to meet the needs of our new political situation. Bella aims to be the best site for commentary, analysis and reporting on Scotland and beyond. We want to capture and recharge the energy of the Yes movement and help re-channel it / us into the next phase and onto the next challenge. To do so we’re bringing together some of the best writers, artists and thinkers around.”

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WIDELY reported: the internet search engine, Google, is said to have announced that it has been asked to remove more than 60,000 web links from its search results, under the ‘right to be forgotten’ – by Britons, alone.

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SEEN anything you think readers of www.allmediascotland.com should be made aware of? Then just send the weblink to here and we’ll do the rest. All suggestions gratefully received. We’re back at noon tomorrow.

PS Your Noon Briefing is a relatively new venture for allmediascotland.com. We are no longer going to report news, story-by-story. Instead, we are going to find content we hope will be useful, in the belief it will prove to be a more comprehensive service.